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The Explosion In Real Retail Sales You Never Hear About

The retail sales numbers, when adjusted for inflation, reveal that a retail explosion has been ongoing for years, but the media has missed it. A search of Google for news about "retail sales" returned these top stories on Friday afternoon, hours after the release of the May retail sales figures by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The media gets a press release with the nominal retail sales data, which masks the retail explosion underway for a decade. They're not economists and they don't know that adjusting retail sales data for inflation better reflects the surge in purchasing power underway for a decade.

Based on Friday's release, retail sales in the 12-months through May 31st were up 3.1%. Excluding volatile gasoline prices, which can distort the monthly figures, retail sales in this 12-month period through May rose 3%, which is not bad but not a boom.